


You'll Always Have Me

by cmk418



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Gen, NHL Lockout, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-27
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 04:20:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmk418/pseuds/cmk418
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the lockout ends, Daniel notices some unusual changes in his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'll Always Have Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Spook Me Multi-Fandom Halloween Ficathon over at LJ - my creature prompt was vampire.

Nothing was quite the same after the lockout and this was especially true of my brother, Henrik. Normally sullen on a good day, the man had turned downright brooding. His sleeping patterns had gotten erratic as well – he still set the alarm for seven thirty, but slept right through it, leaving me with the duty of deactivation. I wanted to speak with him about it, but he’d dismiss it with a wave and a “not now, Daniel”, and I was left wondering what had happened to Henrik during his two months in Bulgaria.

Perhaps he had picked up some kind of virus, it would certainly explain his color. We were not exactly prone to tanning, but he had been unusually pale since his return. And then there was also the reluctance to eat. Henrik was the typical older brother, always stealing food from my plate whenever it was something he enjoyed. But on their return to Vancouver, Johanna confessed to me that he wasn’t even eating the food she prepared (and Johanna’s cooking far surpassed Marinette’s).

The trainers found nothing out of the ordinary when they did their fitness evaluations. In fact, he surpassed the rest of the team in fitness scores. I did not know where that came from. Henrik had always been strong, always fast, but there was always someone who excelled just a bit more in both categories. Factor into that his age and he should not have been hitting the marks that he hit.

On the ice, he was different as well. He had not lost a faceoff this year – I did not know what he was doing differently although Juice had mentioned that the look in his eyes going into the circle was “damn scary”. He would not give up the puck as easily, even with his own teammates. I would go hard to the net and wait for an opportunity, but none came. Henrik skated in alone, deking out defensemen, and shot – always shot, never passed. He hit a lot more too. I guessed it was lucky for all of us that he hadn’t picked up Burr’s penchant for biting.

I noticed that his odd behavior also extended to our time on the road. Henrik usually would return to the room with me after a game, but he had taken to going out with some of the rookies and often returned late, speaking fondly of “the energy of the young”. He never appeared tired though, despite the fact that I was always under the covers and usually startled out of a sound sleep when he arrived.

It was on the road that I was injured. It was midway through the third period of a game against Calgary when I was pulled down. As I hit the ice, I felt a sharp stinging sensation in my right arm. Henrik stood frozen not far away, staring at me, a look of hunger in his eyes and, Juice knelt down next to me, holding my arm in a vise grip while the trainers came running toward me. When they got me to my feet, I saw the blood.

That was the last thing I remember until I woke up in a hospital bed. Henrik stood by the window in the room, framed in the moonlight. He began to ramble about being injured in Bulgaria and how a young nurse gave him what he called “the elixir of life”. As he spoke, the moonlight hit him in a certain way and I could see him for what he was. 

“Daniel,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us. I can give you what I have been given. If you want it, I will share this with you.”

I thought about those moments, on the ice, feeling the blood drain from my body, being so weak that it took two men to help me to my feet. I thought about the past, about Henrik, about sharing birthdays, girlfriends, and hockey accolades. I thought about what it was like being here in Vancouver during November and December without having Henrik to practice with. 

It wasn’t hard to give my answer.

 

Waking up again, I felt so hungry. Henrik pressed the call button for the nurse and we waited together.


End file.
